Advances in Intelligent Information Technology: Re-Branding or Progress towards Conscious Machines?

Is artificial intelligence (AI) just something that is done in laboratories disconnected from the development of the pragmatic computing, which constitutes current information technology or does it contribute to progress in computing and information technology? It has even been suggested that advances in AI are merely a re-branding exercise for promises that are rarely kept. This paper is a personal view of the forces that have driven the development of AI in the past and what might be a serious paradigm shift in the future. The latter points to what appears to be the most abstruse corner of the subject: the modelling of the human brain and the possibility of designing systems with the brain's ability to create conscious thought. There have been accusations that AI is always ahead on promise and behind on delivery. This is an inaccurate view. In broad terms, the argument presented here suggests that as AI developed, progress was achieved by overcoming unforeseen difficulties in the pursuit of very ambitious targets, not just a re-branding of promises. This process not only advanced AI but also fed into the mainstream of computing that underpins the information technology of the present time. While the outcome of the paradigm shift towards conscious machines, which is examined at the end of this paper is still unclear, it is possible to speculate how information technology might be affected in the future.